I’ll be straight with you — when the email landed from UpdraftPlus this morning, I sat up faster than usual. I’ve covered a lot of WordPress plugin security issues over the years, but this one sits in a different category. If you use UpdraftPlus on any WordPress site — and with over 3 million active installations there’s a fair chance you do — stop what you’re doing and read this first.

What Is the UpdraftPlus Vulnerability?

TeamUpdraft — the company behind UpdraftPlus — published their security disclosure on June 5, 2026. A security researcher identified the vulnerability and responsibly notified TeamUpdraft approximately 40 hours before this article was written. The team moved fast: the fix was released the same day as the disclosure.

The technical specifics of the flaw haven’t been fully published yet, which is standard responsible disclosure practice — you don’t hand attackers a blueprint while millions of sites are still unpatched. What TeamUpdraft has confirmed is serious: in the worst case, a bad actor could achieve full takeover of an affected WordPress site, gaining complete access to all its content, users, and data.

The saving grace is scope. TeamUpdraft estimates fewer than 10% of UpdraftPlus installations meet the specific conditions required to trigger the flaw. But since the exact conditions haven’t been published, you can’t know whether your site is in that 10% — which means treating it as urgent regardless.

Has Anyone Actually Been Hacked?

TeamUpdraft checked over 200 sites after being notified and found no evidence of any successful attacks — or even attempted ones. That is genuinely good news. But there is a catch that makes complacency dangerous.

The moment a patched version goes public, sophisticated attackers can reverse-engineer the code changes to figure out what the original vulnerability was. That is standard practice in the security world, not a theoretical risk. The window between “patch released” and “exploit circulating” can be days, sometimes hours for high-profile plugins like this one. The fact that nobody has been hit yet is not a reason to relax — it is a reason to update immediately, while you still have the advantage.

How to Update UpdraftPlus Right Now (Step by Step)

Updating takes under a minute. Here is everything you need to do.

What If You Can’t Update Right Now?

Some readers will be running an expired UpdraftPlus Premium licence and won’t be able to pull the latest version through the normal update channel. TeamUpdraft has provided for exactly this situation. They’ve released a standalone hotfix plugin you can download and activate on any version of UpdraftPlus or UpdraftCentral to patch the vulnerability without a full upgrade.

Download the hotfix directly from TeamUpdraft: updraftplus-hotfix-jun2026.zip

Install it like any other plugin: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → choose the zip → Install Now → Activate. Once you’ve updated to a patched version of UpdraftPlus itself, deactivate and delete the hotfix plugin.

After Updating — Check Your Site for Signs of Compromise

Given there is no evidence of active exploitation, the vast majority of people updating now will be absolutely fine. But a quick five-minute check is worth doing for peace of mind.

• Go to Users → All Users in WordPress and look for any administrator accounts you didn’t create. Delete anything suspicious immediately.
• Check Plugins → Installed Plugins for anything you don’t recognise. Attackers sometimes install backdoor plugins after gaining access.
• Run a free external scan at sitecheck.sucuri.net — it checks your site’s public-facing code for common malware signatures.
• Review your most recent WordPress activity logs if you have a logging plugin installed.
• If anything looks off, contact your host immediately — many offer emergency malware cleanup as part of managed hosting plans.

Why UpdraftPlus Is Such a High-Value Target

UpdraftPlus is the most widely installed WordPress backup plugin in the world, with over 3 million active installations. That scale alone makes it attractive to attackers — a single working exploit against a plugin this widespread can be weaponised at massive scale through automated scanning tools that probe millions of sites looking for vulnerable versions.

There is also the nature of what UpdraftPlus does. Backup plugins, by design, have deep access to everything on your site — your database, your files, your configuration. A vulnerability in a backup plugin can expose far more than a vulnerability in, say, a contact form plugin. It is a high-privilege target, which is exactly why the security community watches it closely.

This is not the first time UpdraftPlus has had a significant security issue, and it will not be the last — that is true of virtually every major WordPress plugin operating at this scale. What matters is how fast the developer responds. On that count, TeamUpdraft handled this responsibly: the researcher reported privately, the fix was built and released within 40 hours, and the disclosure was transparent and same-day. That is the coordinated disclosure process working as intended.

Watch: How to Navigate UpdraftPlus Settings

If you are less familiar with UpdraftPlus or want a visual walkthrough of the plugin dashboard, this tutorial covers the essentials including how to manage backups and verify your plugin version.

Should You Be Worried About UpdraftPlus Going Forward?

Not particularly — and I say that having covered a lot of these security disclosures. The track record that matters is not whether a plugin has ever had a vulnerability, but how responsibly those vulnerabilities are handled. A plugin with 3 million installs is going to attract scrutiny, and researchers are going to find things. What you want is a developer who responds fast, patches quickly, and tells users the truth. TeamUpdraft did all three here.

What this does reinforce is the broader lesson: keep your WordPress plugins updated. The majority of WordPress site compromises happen through known vulnerabilities in outdated plugins, not sophisticated zero-day attacks. Staying current is your single biggest protection. If your host supports automatic plugin updates, now is a good time to enable that setting.

Mr Wangdoo

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wangdoo.com. Independent tech journalist covering AI, EVs, gadgets, and emerging tech.